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Esther Williams Collection, Vol. 1
Bathy Beauty (1944) Easy to Wed (1946) On An Island With You (1948)
Neptune's Daughter (1949) Dangerous When Wet (1953)
Back cover description: Laughs, romance, music--just add water! Get into the swim of Hollywood's Golden Era with musical number outtakes, classic shorts, cartoons, and more. Bathing Beauty: a big splash in her first starring role: Williams is a teacher at a women's college--and wacky Red Skelton enrolls to be near her. An astonishing flames-and-fountains aquatic finale. Easy to Wed: A spiffy remake of the screwball classic Libeled Lady, with Esther as the lady libeled. Van Johnson, Keenan Wynn, and Lucille Ball round out a funny four-sided love triangle. On an Island with You: Paradise for musical-comedy fans! Esther (in a series of swimsuits and sarongs) plays a film star on a tropical location shoot. With Ricardo Montalban, Cyd Charisse, and Jimmy Durante. Neptune's Daughter: The polo team's in town and so is the fun for Esther, Ricardo Montalban, Red Skelton, and Betty Garrett. Includes Frank Loesser songs and one of Esther's greatest splash-happy finales. Dangerous When Wet: Cartoon legends Tom and Jerry join Esther in the light-hearted extravaganza about a girl who swims the English Channel--and meets a dashing Frenchman (Fernando Lamas). |
Titles
Bathing Beauty |
Posters
Theatrical Releases: 1944 - 1953
DVD Review: Warner (5-disc) - Region 1,2,3,4 - NTSC
DVD Box Cover |
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CLICK to order from: |
Distribution | Warner - Region 1,2,3,4 - NTSC | |
Time: | 1:41:09 + 1:50:00 + 1:47:28 + 1:32:57 + 1:35:21 | |
Bitrate:
Bathing Beauty |
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Bitrate:
Easy to Wed |
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Bitrate:
On An Island With You |
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Bitrate:
Neptune's Daughter |
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Bitrate:
Dangerous When Wet |
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Audio | English (1.0 stereo) | |
Subtitles | English, English (hoh), none | |
Features |
Release Information: Edition Details:
Bathing Beauty (1944)
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Comments: |
The 5 main features of this boxset are housed in a three-tiered digipak case inside a cardboard box (see image above) and they are not sold separately at this time. All 5 DVDs are dual-layered, progressively transferred and coded for Regions 1,2,3, and 4 in the NTSC standard. Bitrates are on the low side. Audio is original mono but very clear and consistent and there are optional English (or English 'hard of hearing') subtitles. There are no commentaries but the discs contain a lot of supplemental information although very little of it directly pertains to Esther Williams or her films. I should state that I have never seen any of these films previously and have very little idea about how well the colors are represented in comparison to original theatrical viewing but, to me Easy to Wed looked a bit faded. Overall I would say that I am happy with most of the transfers but Easy to Wed has more digital artifacts than I am used to from Warner. On An Island... and Dangerous When Wet look quite strong - excellent detail. Bathing Beauty is a notch below standard and Neptune's Daughter looks about average fare. The mono tracks all sounded quite acceptable. Contrast and detail are about at Warner's usual high standard for classic films. The screen caps selected below give a strong indication of the image quality.
I won't get into specifics about some
of the less relevant extras that include one excellent cartoon (2 X Tom
and Jerry, 2 X Barney Bear etc.) per disc, a trailer for each, three
Pete Smith comedy (and other) shorts, outtakes and also audio interviews
(2 with Esther Williams!) and recordings (Johnny Mercer). On top of all
that, on Bathing Beauty, Robert Osborne hosts an, almost 50
minute, interview with Esther. She is quite honest and there are some
clips from her films. |
DVD Menus
S
upplements:Screen Captures
Bathing Beauty
Stars Red Skelton, Esther Williams, Basil Rathbone, Bill Goodwin and Jean
Porter
Directors: George Sidney
Theatrical Release June 27th, 1944
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Screen Captures
Easy to Wed
Stars Van Johnson, Esther Williams, Lucille Ball and Keenan Wynn
Directors: Charles Walters
Theatrical Release Date: July 11th, 1946
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On An Island With You
Stars Esther Williams, Peter Lawford, Ricardo Montalban, Jimmy Durante, Cyd
Charisse and Xavier Cugat
Directors: Richard Thorpe
Theatrical Release Date: May 3rd, 1948
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Neptune's Daughter
Stars Esther Williams, Red Skelton, Ricardo Montalban, Betty Garrett, Keenan
Wynnand Xavier Cugat
Directors: Edward Buzzell
Theatrical Release Date: June 1949
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Dangerous When Wet
Stars Esther Williams, Fernando Lamas, Jack Carson, Charlotte Greenwood, Denise
Darcel
Directors: Charles Walters
Theatrical Release Date: June 18th, 1953
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